Those "many people" fly into Iran's international airports, pass customs inspection and have their passports stamped. Crossing a border in mountains is far from that. Of course the kids say they didn't cross the border... how do they know where the border is, if it is not clearly marked? Any border board who wants a promotion and a bonus pay can venture into Iraq and grab a foreigner.
My guess, though, tells me that those students were dangerously close to the border. Iranian guards wouldn't go a mile deep into Iraq, at least because there is no reason to do that. They can't capture Iraqi goat herders (pointless) and they can't randomly hope that some Americans will suddenly show up at a certain point on Iraqi land. The guards were probably near the border, and they saw the students, and they arrested them. Perhaps it was within 100 yards of the border, either side - doesn't matter. You don't want to approach that border so close.
we have the right to travel to other friendly countries - including an Iraq we've spent billions to liberate
Spending money on liberation of Iraq hasn't made it friendly. Remember that the liberation required shooting and killing a bunch of Iraqis; they had families, and those families are not enamored with the USA anymore. Likely more Iraqis hate the USA today than they did ten or twenty years ago.
No, it's Iraq they were visiting, not Iran. This has nothing to do with flying into Tehran; the Iranian government - the one who claims the Jews should be annihilated, claims the apocolyptic return of the 12th imam is imminent, claims they don't have a nuclear weapons program, etc., also claims these hikers are spies who crossed their border illegally to spy for America. It's absurd. Stop focusing on their distance from a likely unmarked border and start focusing on their 5 year conviction for espionage. Totally fabricated.
"Spending money on liberation of Iraq hasn't made it friendly. Remember that the liberation required shooting and killing a bunch of Iraqis; they had families, and those families are not enamored with the USA anymore. Likely more Iraqis hate the USA today than they did ten or twenty years ago.
I'm aware that there are unfriendly Iraqi citizens. My point was about the government, which is not regarded as a hostile regime, like Iran. Moreover, the atonomous Kurdish region may be the most pro-American spot in the entire Muslim world, and one of the most pro-American in all the world from the reports of all who have been there.